DRDA
Distributed Relational Database Architecture: the standard way applications on other computers connect to DB2 for z/OS over the network.
Also written Distributed Relational Database Architecture, DDF, distributed data facility, DB2 Connect, JDBC
DRDA, Distributed Relational Database Architecture, is the protocol that lets an application on another computer use DB2 for z/OS. A Java program on a Linux server, or a reporting tool on a PC, sends its SQL over the network using DRDA, and DB2 sends back the results.
In DB2, the part that accepts these requests is the distributed data facility, DDF, which runs in its own address space. Each remote database has a location name, which applications use to say where to connect. On the client side, IBM's data server drivers, used through JDBC or ODBC, speak DRDA. DB2 Connect is the older name for the same idea.
Remote work is a big and growing part of DB2 activity at many sites. Much of the work DDF does for remote requests can run on zIIP processors, which keeps its cost lower.
For developers, DRDA means DB2 data is reachable from almost any platform with normal database tools. For DBAs and security teams, it means watching remote connections as carefully as local ones.
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- DB2 for z/OSIBM's relational database on the mainframe, where a great deal of the world's banking and insurance data is stored.
- Stored procedureA program stored in DB2 and run with a single SQL CALL, so an application can do several database steps in one request.
- Specialty engineA mainframe processor set aside for one kind of work, such as Linux or certain z/OS workloads, and usually priced lower than a general processor.
- DB2 threadThe connection between an application and DB2 for the length of its work, which DB2 tracks and can display.
- SQLThe language used to query and change relational data. The same SQL used everywhere else, running against mainframe tables.